Two teams with an appetite to run it from deep. A packed out Stadio Olimpico for the first time in a Six Nations game since 2016. Beautiful Roman sunshine washing over a pristine carpet of green. This sport is often a slog in the mud but sometimes, as it was here, it is a thing of beauty. Whirring limbs and dancing feet and silky touches and delicate kicks. Italy edged it with a thrilling victory, but Scotland played their part in the show.
That will be scant consolation to the visitors who were magnificent in parts, particularly in the opening 20 minutes when George Horne at scrum-half kept the ball fizzing at a frenetic pace. But rather than prove that they are a different sort of Scotland, one that takes aim at triple crowns and top-two finishes in the Six Nations, they succumbed to a team that is perhaps the most improved outfit in the world.
